Roses are red

I'm never quite sure about this catering kick for Valentine's Day. After a gut busting blowout, full of champagne, asparagus and chocolate, I'm more likely to need to sleep it off than indulge in passionate exercise, and for me, that's sort of missing the point of the celebration of adult love.

So skip the big meal on the 14th and have a threesome in bed with your loved one and this homely little cake. You'll be making sweet luurve all night and the cake will just provide a touch of needed energy for when things start to flag.



Yep, it's a Black Forest Gateau, a tired old cliché or an old favourite revisited depending on your need for trendiness. I hadn't made one in years because I'm no fan of vegan cream and without cream the cake doesn't really work but now we can buy Soyatoo whipping cream and although it's decidedly fake tasting it doesn't do a bad job in a rich confection like this, oozing with cherries, brandy and chocolate.

Make a pair of sponge cakes:

Line the base of two sponge tins (not bigger than 20cm max diameter) with parchment or greased greaseproof paper. Heat the oven to 180C

215g non-dairy milk
60g light vegetable oil (unless you like the taste of olive oil and chocolate)
2 tsp. cider or white wine vinegar (to activate the baking powder)
1/2 tsp. almond essence

150g granulated sugar
150g plain flour
35g cocoa powder
10g baking powder (that's not quite a french packet)
tiny pinch of salt

Mix the wet ingredients together, then add the sifted dry ingredients. Mix well and divide between the two pans equally. Bake in the hot oven for about 30 minutes. The cakes should be just firm to the touch without being gooey. You need a very moist soft texture so don't overbake.

Allow to cool before proceeding.

To make up, you will need a small carton of Soyatoo whipping cream (or other vegan double cream substitute) whipped, some form of cherries and some grated good quality chocolate.

Split each cake into two layers. This is quite difficult. I used a large sharp knife but I've found a piece of cotton can make an effective cake 'wire'. The sections will be very fragile so work carefully but don't panic if they crumble a little. You can stick them back together with the filling.

Place a section of cake on your serving dish and cover it with preserved stoned cherries, lightly cooked and stoned fresh cherries, cherry conserve, those expensive cherries you get at xmas with the liqueurs in them, jam - you get the idea, use the best you have - then sprinkle over a couple of tablespoons of alcohol. Kirsch is ideal but brandy is good and creme de cassis works too.

Cover with a section of cake. Now cover that section, which will be the middle of the cake, with cream. You will have lot more cream than me because we'd already used half our carton for something else. Be generous but remember the sheets.

Repeat with next two layers of cake. You should now have a stacked cake four layers high with two fillings of cherries, one of cream and cream on top.

Sprinkle the top with the grated chocolate and decorate as you fancy.



There you go. A symphony of lovely sweet romantic joy. And those four plates in the picture? You really don't need to ask about those.